Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Facebook Fairytale

Arrrgghhh! No camera in the foreseeable future...... I was mid-photoshoot (more about that in a moment!) when the camera DIED! So this week and maybe the next (and so on, and maybe so on.....) I will just be bringing you a story !
Haha! Lucky you!
The initial plan was show you what I eat several nights a week, but as I began to write,I decided to mix it up a little.

The www. : instant access to information and people in just countless ways. My favourite way of connecting to people via the internet has to be Facebook....
Corny? A little I guess, but having grown up in Kenya and with most of my childhood friends important people now spread across the globe, I have slowly lost contact with nearly everybody (ok, EVERYBODY!) I knew before I was 19.
But through Facebook, I am now back in regular contact with a couple dozen of my old friends. Nothing in depth. A little comment on a status here, a brief reminisce there. It isn't about clinging to the past, but about knowing how those people who were such a big part of my childhood are going as adults.

As an aside; last year I became fb friends with an old uni pal, on what just happened to be the very same week he was coming to the Canberra Show with some of his students.....and just like that, less than a week later, we were having our very own 17 year reunion!
Bless Facebook!

But I digress....there is the story I want to tell you. This past month, I have been having my very own Facebook Fairytale!

Here are the main characters:
Me: a girl who loves to muck around with a Nikon D60 in her spare time- Canberra, Australia
Troy: a boy who was 3 years ahead of me in high school -USA
Shauna: tutu designer, also Troy's nephew's fiancee'-USA

Troy sent me and maybe all of his friends a link to Shauna's business Milah's Tutu Closet. I accordingly became a fan, and wrote her a message something to the effect of "Those tutus are so gorgeous. They would be awesome photo props for a shoot."

No sooner had the words left my 'comment ' button, than I recieved a friend request, from Shauna (but sent from networking Troy!)
I remember chuckling a little to myself, thinking 'ah, he senses a sell!' And with another click of a button, Shauna and I became 'friends'. For several days, I would comment on her daily status and she would comment on my photo albums.
I messaged Shauna that I would be ordering a few tutus in the near future and all was good.

And the likely path would have been suchly:
1. I would have bought the tutus
2. I would have set the tutus aside,stored all frothy and fairylike in a special box so as not to squash them, for that photoshoot op that would probably never happen..... do I lack confidence...um....GUILTY!

But then...
THEN one day I got a message from Shauna that changed everything..... She wrote: 'What is your mailing address. I think I am going to ship you some tutus! On the house! If you get some photos taken of them do you mind if I use them for my website?? Just a thought! '

I freaked right out!!!! No-one has ever, EVER given me free stuff. I tried to talk the girl out of it...but she would not back down, and when I emailed Troy to get him to do something about her stubborn refusal of my business, he backed her decision.

So it came about that I got a package of 4 (not the 2 I was expecting, but 4) of the most beautiful tutus ever. Tutus with ribbons that tie in a delicious bow at the back....Tutus made uniquely, with little bits of tulle woven around the ribbon in such a way thatf they froth up and sit perfectly around a child's waist, sit in a way that the ones from a dept store never would. My inner child fell in love with these tutus.

And then I did the only thing I could....I got on fb and called out for little girls to shoot tutus in.

The fallout? From Shauna's generosity?

-Photots! Shauna now has a wide range of photos of cherubs wearing tutus from Milah's Tutu Closet . .
-A name! I was forced to create a name for my photography to put copyright on the pictures. I came up with the Swahili word Kazuri which means 'small and beautiful'. Kazuri pics.... :) It sounds right to me.
-Experience! I got invaluable experience photographing and working with children other than my own.
-Confidence! I did 3 photoshoots in one week, and I had to learn to improvise and be creative and cope with lighting disasters. And I was happy with a lot of the photos. I actually said outloud to someone...." I think that after today's photos, I might now call myself a photographer."
-A logo on its way! Another fb friend (a second cousin I have met only once, and then for less than 10 minutes) messaged me to ask if her new graphic design company could design a logo for my business to help get their name out!!! I have a business? Woohoo!
-Paying work! I have recieved several offers of photo jobs that otherwise would never have been sent my way!
Want to see some of the tutus? Thought you might!


































do you have a cool Facebook story?

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